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ORAL TRADITION 19.1- Complete Issue _____________________________________________________________ Volume 19 March 2004 Number 1 _____________________________________________________________ Editor Managing Editor John Miles Foley Heather Maring Associate Editor Editorial Assistants John Zemke Andrew Porter Slavica Publishers, Inc. For a complete catalog of books from Slavica, with prices and ordering information, write to: Slavica Publishers, Inc. Indiana University 2611 E. 10th St. Bloomington, IN 47408-2603 ISSN: 0883-5365 Each contribution copyright 2004 by its author. All rights reserved. The editor and the publisher assume no responsibility for statements of fact or opinion by the authors. Oral Tradition seeks to provide a comparative and interdisciplinary focus for studies in oral literature and related fields by publishing research and scholarship on the creation, transmission, and interpretation of all forms of oral traditional expression. As well as essays treating certifiably oral traditions, OT presents investigations of the relationships between oral and written traditions, as well as brief accounts of important fieldwork, a Symposium section (in which scholars may reply at some length to prior essays), review articles, occasional transcriptions and translations of oral texts, a digest of work in progress, and a regular column for notices of conferences and other matters of interest. In addition, occasional issues will include an ongoing annotated bibliography of relevant research and the annual Albert Lord and Milman Parry Lectures on Oral Tradition. OT welcomes contributions on all oral literatures, on all literatures directly influenced by oral traditions, and on non-literary oral traditions. Submissions must follow the list-of reference format (style sheet available on request) and must be accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope for return or for mailing of proofs; all quotations of primary materials must be made in the original language(s) with following English translations. Authors should submit two copies of all manuscripts. Most contributions will be reviewed by at least one specialist reader and one member of the editorial board before a final decision is reached. Review essays, announcements, and contributions to the Symposium section will be evaluated by the editor in consultation with the board. Oral Tradition appears twice per year, in March and October. To enter a subscription, please contact Slavica Publishers at the address given above. All manuscripts, books for review, items for the bibliography updates, and editorial correspondence, as well as subscriptions and related inquiries should be addressed to the editor, John Miles Foley, Center for Studies in Oral Tradition, 21 Parker Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211. Printed in the United States of America. EDITORIAL BOARD Mark C. Amodio Joseph J. Duggan Vassar College Univ. of Cal./Berkeley Old and Middle English French, Spanish, comparative Patricia Arant Alan Dundes Brown University Univ. of Cal./Berkeley Russian Folklore Samuel Armistead Mark W. Edwards University of California/Davis Stanford University Hispanic, comparative Ancient Greek Richard Bauman Ruth Finnegan Indiana University Open University Folklore, Theory African, South Pacific Dan Ben-Amos Thomas Hale University of Pennsylvania Penn. State University Folklore African Mary Ellen Brown Lee Haring Indiana University Brooklyn College, CUNY Folklore, Balladry African Chogjin Joseph Harris Chinese Academy Harvard University of Social Sciences Old Norse Mongolian, Chinese Bridget Connelly Lauri Harvilahti University of Cal./Berkeley University of Helsinki Arabic Russian, Finnish, Altai Robert P. Creed Lauri Honko () Univ. of Mass./Amherst Turku University Old English, Comparative Comparative Epic Robert Culley Dell Hymes McGill University University of Virginia Biblical Studies Native American, Linguistics Thomas DuBois Martin Jaffee University of Wisconsin Hebrew Bible Scandinavian Univ. of Washington EDITORIAL BOARD Minna Skafte Jensen Shelly Fenno Quinn Odense University Ohio State University Ancient Greek, Latin Japanese Werner Kelber Burton Raffel Rice University Univ. of Southwestern Biblical Studies Louisiana Translation Françoise Létoublon Université Stendahl Karl Reichl Ancient Greek Universität Bonn Turkic, Old and Middle English Victor Mair University of Pennsylvania John Roberts Chinese Ohio State University African-American Nada Milošević-Djordjević University of Belgrade Joel Sherzer South Slavic University of Texas/Austin Native American, Anthropology Stephen Mitchell Harvard University Dennis Tedlock Scandinavian SUNY/Buffalo Native American Gregory Nagy Harvard University J. Barre Toelken Ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Utah State University comparative Folklore, Native American Joseph Falaky Nagy Ronald J. Turner Univ. of Cal./Los Angeles Univ. of Missouri/Columbia Old Irish Storytelling Susan Niditch Andrew Wiget Amherst College University of New Mexico Hebrew Bible Native American Walter J. Ong () St. Louis University (Emeritus) Hermeneutics of orality and literacy Contents Editor’s Column.......................................................................................... 1 Joseph Harris Myth and Literary History: Two Germanic Examples ...............................3 Lori Ann Garner Anglo-Saxon Charms in Performance...................................................... 20 Edward R. Haymes The Germanic Heldenlied and the Poetic Edda: Speculations on Preliterary History .........................................................43 Isidore Okpewho Performance and Plot in The Ozidi Saga ................................................63 Holly E. Hearon The Implications of “Orality” for Studies of the Biblical Text ................96 Kristin Kuutma Creating a Seto Epic ...............................................................................108 About the Authors...................................................................................151 Editor’s Column With the first issue of volume 19 we return to Oral Tradition’s most customary (even archetypal) format: a collection of six medium-sized essays on a variety of areas spanning both geographical and historical space. Volume 18, which comprised two anthologies of brief reports on the world’s oral traditions and related phenomena, aspired to bring before our readership some reflection of the enormous diversity of the subject to which this journal has attended for nearly twenty years. Those two issues—with their total of more than 80 contributions of approximately 500 words each on the questions of “What is oral tradition in your field?” and “What are the most interesting new directions in your field?”—have drawn significant attention from individual scholars and the Chronicle of Higher Education (February 27, 2004). Now we resume what has become our conventional style, but perhaps with an increased awareness of the remarkably diverse background against which studies in oral tradition must be understood. The present issue begins in the medieval Germanic world with the 2003 Lord and Parry Lecture, Joseph Harris’ meditation on myth and literary history, with specific reference to the Old Norse Master-builder tale and the Langobardic story of Lamicho the Barker. In a cognate vein, Lori Ann Garner then explores the little-studied Anglo-Saxon magical charms from the perspective of performance, elucidating the source of their word-power as ritual. From a different corner of the early Germanic tradition, Edward Haymes considers the special, genre-dependent status of the poems constituting the Poetic Edda, suggesting that they employ a particular type of oral composition and transmission. Isidore Okpewho continues the colloquy with an examination of Okabou Ojolo’s one-time performance of the Ozidi Saga from the Niger Delta as a continuous oral narrative, showing how the bard “was able to hold the plot of the tale together, despite the potentially destabilizing influence of contingent factors.” From contemporary Nigeria we journey back two millennia to the Middle East with Holly Hearon’s very welcome overview of the broad spectrum of historical studies of orality and the New Testament, including attention to the most recent investigations, which tend to stress the productive interactions between oral traditions and texts. Finally, Kristin Kuutma illustrates the complex collaborative framework within which the Seto singer Anne Vabarna created the epic known as Peko in 1927, arguing that “it constitutes an ethnographic representation of Seto culture in traditional poetic form.” On the horizon are an issue treating the modern Gaelic, ancient Greek, Balochi, and South Slavic traditions as well as contemporary folklore, the medieval mystic Margery Kempe, and American jazz (19, ii) and, further in the future, a special issue on the well preserved and thriving oral traditions of the Basque country. Prior contents are now listed in a searchable data- base at www.oraltradition.org/otjournal/search.asp . As always, we welcome your reactions, your advice, and especially your manuscripts. John Miles Foley, Editor Center for Studies in Oral Tradition 21 Parker Hall University of Missouri Columbia, MO 65211 USA Telephone: +573-882-9720 Fax: +573-446-2585 E-mail: FoleyJ @ missouri.edu Web page: www.oraltradition.org Oral Tradition, 19/1 (2004): 3-19 Myth and Literary History: Two Germanic Examples Joseph Harris The Albert Lord and Milman Parry Lecture for 2003 Under the care of its founder, John Miles Foley, the Center for Studies in Oral Tradition,
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